Friday, November 7, 2008

Okay! Ro-Coms! Have read almost all of them and would like to review all of them here on the blog. Since I don't need a whole lotta room to express my opinions for these, I thought I'd do a series of bite sized reviews divided in three categories:

Dancing Queen by Erin DowningIt's official. Olivia is a superfreak. Sure, she may have landed the hottest internship at an übercool TV music station. And yes, she's chilling with A-listers in London all summer. But when she meets her very first pop star, she gets caught in a revolving glass door and falls smack down on her bum -- all in one quick motion.

Luckily, Rocker Boy thinks Liv's quirks are adorable. He takes her clubbing at the hippest spots! Liv may be clumsy on solid ground, but on the dance floor she sparkles. The summer's just begun and she's already captured the spotlight -- and a celeb's heart, too. Now if only she was sure he's the right guy...

Steph: I couldn't finish this one, which is funny, since I liked Prom Crashers by the same author. The plot is similar to many other romantic comedies everywhere: Fall for the wrong guy, he breaks your heart, then you realize Mr. Right is that quiet, unassuming guy who's been there all along but you never noticed him that way before. And now you do, so you both go and kiss and have beautiful babies together (kidding). So what else is new? The characters sure weren't. The writing wasn't either. (Third person! I hate that for these books.) Was bored - not recommended.

Crush du Jour by Micol OstowLaine barely has enough time for herself, much less for romance. But she's always hungry for more projects -- so she signs up to teach a cooking class at her local community center. As it turns out, the guy co-teaching the class with her, Seth, is not just cute, but downright delicious! When Seth offers her a waitressing job at his family's restaurant, Hype, Laine can't resist.

Just as Seth finally warms up to Laine, she finds out that Callie, another waitress at Hype, is cooking up a plan to steal Seth for herself. But tensions really reach their boiling point when Laine's restaurant critic mother writes a scathing review of Hype! Will Laine have to put love on the back burner again?

Steph: So this is probably the worst Ro-Com I've read as of yet. I couldn't give less of a shit about the Seth dude if I tried, Laine's constant reference to how busy! perfect! overworked! she is got on my last nerve, and the barely-there romance made the whole "romantic comedy" thing on the cover a total sham.

Count the culinary references in the description - I see six, how about you? Even innocuous ones you see all the time, as they're probably all there on purpose. That, in a 200-word description. The text is rigged with these as attempts to fulfill the "comedy" half of the genre. Perhaps someone should explain the word "overkill" to the main character.

Or maybe just "kill". Cos that's sure what it felt like.

Gettin' Lucky by Micol OstowCass Parker is a big believer in luck, fate, and all things cosmic. So she's devastated when she walks in on her supposed best friend macking with Jesse, the guy she's in total "like" with. Talk about bad karma. Vegas is just full of cheaters, Cass concludes -- even the locals.

Cass refuses to sulk. She finds new friends and even gets invited to their weekly poker night -- totally casual and not-for-profit, of course. They seem pretty chill, and Cass definitely needs to get out more. So after consulting her horoscope, she gets in the game.

But when Jesse turns up for a final showdown, it turns out that Cass isn't so good at bluffing -- not when it comes to matters of the heart....

Steph: Is anyone sensing a pattern anywhere? Hmm.

Anyway, this one lacks the element of surprise. The genre itself is inherently predictable in 90% of the books, which is fine if the author makes up for it with good romance, writing, characters, etc, none of which made even a brief appearance here. So we're back to: predictable. With no redemption.

I read both Dancing Queen & Crush Du Jour. I actually liked Crush Du Jour ( but then again, I read it well over a few months ago, and I have the habit of doing a lot of growing up in short periods of time ).

There's actually a web site that to which all the authors of these contribute. They are wildly popular with my girly lit fans, and they're cheap in Perma-Bound editions. Great lit? Nah. Fun. Sometimes. Thanks for the review!

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Hey! For some reason, this embedded comment form makes most people click twice before the comment is processed and published. It's not you - it's just that it's a new Blogger feature with kinks and all that. (But I adore it and don't wanna get rid of it!) I removed Captcha to make the process easier. You don't have to rewrite the comments twice; just click on SUBMIT twice and it should work. If not, email me. Thanks! -Steph